Does anyone know of sites that have been damaged or destroyed which have resulted in the site not being nominated to the Inscribed List? I recently read an article regarding the Rova of Antananarivo. Within the article, it stated that the rova was destroyed by fire just before the nomination of the site was to be discussed by the World Heritage Committee
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An interesting possibility but I have so far been unable to find any evidence of it and some which brings it into question - this could be another bit of "Wiki misinformation"

a. The fire took place in Nov 1995. The 1995 WHC took place in Dec in Berlin and the event did not receive a minuted reference
b. The Malagasy Republic didn't submit a T List until Nov 1997 (shown by documentation on the UNESCO Web site) - so any nomination couldn't have been being discussed soon after the fire? However Madagascar WAS active in WHS matters from the early years having signed the convention in 1983 and having proposed Tsingy de Bemaraha back in 1988 (eventually inscribed in 1990) before T List entries were required in advance of Nominations - which only became the rule in 1984 with the decision that, from 1985 onwards no CULTURAL sites would be considered by the WHC which hadn't been registered on the T List.
c. I have not been able to get any "search return" on the UNESCO Web site on the subject -though "Rova" for instance does (correctly) return the Rova which is on the T List at Tsinjoarivo.
d. There is evidence that UNESCO was involved AFTER the fire in helping the Malagasy Republic to decide how to progress - "UNESCO recommended that an independent committee of local experts be set up to tackle the issue. This produced the "DNOR" or National Direction of the Rova Operation" and in French (slightly different) "dans les jours qui suivirent l'incendie et suite à un appel à la solidarité internationale lancé par l'UNESCO, de cette catastrophe est né le Comité national pour l'opération Rova." Both of these are from http://www.chin.gc.ca/Applications_URL/icom/disaster_preparedness_book/country/rakoto arisoa.pdf
That document makes no mention of the site having been close to nomination.
e. The nomination documents for the Royal hill of Ambohamanga which was inscribed in 2001 make no mention of any work to inscribe the rova of Antananarivo

So -
It is possible that the Malagasy Republic was doing some work (including intending having it on their upcoming T List) to prepare the Rova of Antananarivo for nomination before the fire put paid to such plans (though I have found no records of this) - but it seems most unlikely that the site was anywhere near ready for being nominated as the rule requiring a T List for Cultural sites was already in place and no such list had been submitted (and wasn't for another 2 years). If anyone can find contrary evidence it would be interesting to hear about it!

If anyone can unearth a copy of the March-April 1996 edition of the ACP-EU Courier, I believe that it would be helpful. The only source that I can find on the wiki article relating to the Rova of Antananarivo becoming a World Heritage Site is this magazine.

It can be looked at here.
http://www.greenstone.org/greenstone3/nzdl?a=d&d=HASH0122e83f4068843c8c50f8a0.3.1.5&c =edudev&sib=1&ec=1&p.s=ClassifierBrowse&p.sa=&p.a=b&p.c=edudev
Click on the section titled "The Red moon" and the article will be at the bottom of the page.

But it doesn't take us any further forward!! Some unidentified person has written
"The palace went up in flames, just as it was about to be classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO." but without any reference or evidence. Many developing countries harbour ambitions to get sites inscribed and hope, quite unrealistically, that it will happen very quickly since their sites are self evidently of World importance - Usually (unless you are Palestine!!) it takes around 10 years from first intention to final inscription!

With the evidence that has been presented on this issue, I would believe that the Rova of Antananarivo was not going to be inscribed by the World Heritage Committee in 1995. If the site had been up for nomination in 1995, I would presume that it would have been inscribed, regardless of the fact that it had been destroyed (reflecting UNESCO's handling of the Bamiyan Valley and the Mostar Bridge). Also, many news articles on the internet also reference sites being "nominated" when a respective state party just simply puts a location on a tentative list.

With that being said, I wonder if there are any sites that have been damaged or destroyed before the WHC resulting in the prevention of a sites' nomination.

Very true - Indian newspapers are particularly guilty of this - and then their tourist companies advertise the sites as WHS and then UK travel companies copy them without knowing what they are doing ....... I think particularly of Majuli


I wonder if that would have been the case?
Mostar tried from 1999 until 2003 to gain inscription - so ICOMOS/UNESCO didn't exactly give it an "easy ride" and ICOMOS were as pedantic as ever on the need for credible Management Plans - so Bosnia didn't gain a "sympathy" let off on that matter. I have just re-read the documents and have noted a similarity with the argument used for the reconstructed Centre of Warsaw. In both sites the case for "Authenticity" was pretty thin or non existant - so the argument shifts to using the reconstruction itself as showing merit, international cooperation etc and hence OUV! Which means of course that the reconstruction needs to have taken place before inscription

At Bamiyan although the iconic statues were destroyed there was still enough left to badge the site as a "Cultural Landscape" and find enough "authenticity" to do so